Denzel Whitaker

Call it a blessing. That's how 17-year-old Denzel Whitaker describes being cast alongside his namesake, Denzel Washington, in "The Great Debaters." "My dad and mom named me after Denzel," he explains. "They thought it was a unique name." Whitaker, for the record, is a pretty unique teenager.

Call it a blessing. That's how 17-year-old Denzel Whitaker describes being cast alongside his namesake, Denzel Washington, in "The Great Debaters." "My dad and mom named me after Denzel," he explains. "They thought it was a unique name." Whitaker, for the record, is a pretty unique teenager.

Denzel Washington was a force to be reckoned with at the 39th annual NAACP Image Awards nominations announced Tuesday. His civil rights drama "The Great Debaters" scored eight nominations, including best film, director and actor for Washington. The film was also nominated for actress for Jurnee Smollett, supporting actor for Denzel Whitaker, Forest Whitaker and Nate Parker, and writing for Robert Eisele.

"My Soul to Take," the first film horror-meister Wes Craven has both written and directed since 1994's "New Nightmare" (and his first picture in 3-D), is a thrill-free snooze that will certainly rank as one of the least ? if not the least ? effective entries in Craven's nearly 40-year canon of cinematic shockers. The overly complex story goes something like this: Sixteen years ago in the town of Riverton, Abel Plenkov (Rául Esparza), a schizophrenic family man with seven personalities?

Opponents found it easy to underestimate the 1930s debate team of Wiley College, a small, all-black institution in a remote corner of Texas, but they did so at their peril. The same will likely hold true for those who underestimate the new film on the Wiley phenomenon, "The Great Debaters." Because it is so old-school Hollywood, with a weakness for standard moments and pat situations, "The Great Debaters" initially comes off as easily dismissible.

In Denzel Washington's new film "The Great Debaters," we are introduced to a young woman who is poised, talented and determined to succeed as a college debater against a field of men, but who knows that to accomplish that goal she will have to overcome not only prejudice based on race, but also based on gender. Her name is Samantha Booke and in the film, which is set at Wiley College in eastern Texas during the Great Depression, she becomes the first woman selected by debate coach Melvin B.

DENZEL WASHINGTON has the slightly dazed look of a man in the home stretch. "It's all good," he says, flashing that $20-million grin in a postproduction suite on the Sony lot. "I'm not tired. Well, I'm tired, but I'm happy." The two-time Oscar winner is putting in long hours, scrambling to complete his second directorial effort, "The Great Debaters," just weeks from its Christmas release. "Working all night, all day . . .

Friday Choking Man A shy Ecuadorean dishwasher strives for a tentative bond with a Chinese waitress in this mix of psychological drama and magical realism at a Queens diner. With Octavio Gomez Berrios, Eugenia Yuan, Aaron Paul and Mandy Patinkin. Written and directed by Steve Barron. International Film Circuit -- Fred Claus Up at the North Pole, St. Nick (Paul Giamatti) gets an unwelcome visit from his no-account brother (Vince Vaughn) in this holiday-themed comedy.